KL Rahul reacted to his Karnataka teammate Prasidh Krishna's electrifying International debut in the first ODI vs England in Pune, saying he wasn't surprised with the pacer's record-breaking performance in India's 66-run victory.

“I was always very confident that the next player to come out of Karnataka will be Prasidh," Rahul said in a press-converence on the eve of the second ODI. "We weren’t of the same batch (state level), but I watched him play a lot of junior cricket and also [saw him] in the nets. He was somebody who would catch your eye. Tall guy, bowls quick and gets a lot of bounce from the wicket.”

Rahul and Prasidh have played together for their state side in domestic limited-over tournaments, and against each other in the Indian Premier League.


“Having played with him for the last couple of seasons for Syed Mushtaq Ali [Trophy] and Vijay Hazare [Trophy], I realised that he is a brave boy and has a great sense of the game. [Also impressive is] how he understands the game. He is a very keen learner and he is very brave, and comes in with a lot of aggression,”

Rahul, who kept wickets in the first game, witnessed Prasidh bowl a record breaking spell of 4 for 54 - the best figures by an Indian debutant in ODI history.

“If you saw in the last game, he had a word or two with the opposition batsman," Rahul pointed out. "He enjoys being in the contest. That is something that I loved. Happy to see that he wasn’t overwhelmed. I am sure there were a lot of nerves. But the way he came back after the first spell to take those two crucial wickets — these are the qualities that define a player. If he works harder he will be a great asset for the Indian team.”


India and England will take each other on in the second ODI on Friday and the third and final match on Sunday before the players disperse to join their respective bubbles in the Indian Premier League.